The Permafrost Young Researchers Network (PYRN) (www.pyrn.org) is a unique resource for students and young scientists and engineers studying permafrost. It is an international organization fostering innovative collaboration, seeking to recruit, retain, and promote future generations of permafrost scientists and engineers. Initiated for and during IPY, PYRN directs the multi-disciplinary talents of its membership toward global awareness, knowledge, and response to permafrost-related challenges in a changing climate.Created as an education and outreach component of the International Permafrost Association (IPA), PYRN is a central database of permafrost information and science for more than 750 young researchers from over 43 countries. PYRN distributes a newsletter, recognizes outstanding permafrost research by its members through an annual awards program, organizes training workshops (2007 in Abisko, Sweden and St. Petersburg, Russia, 2008 in Fairbanks, Alaska and St. Petersburg, Russia, 2009 in Puschchino, Russia), and contributes to the growth and future of the permafrost community.While networking forms the basis of PYRNs activities, the organization also seeks to establish itself as a driver of permafrost research for the IPY and beyond. We recently launched a series of initiatives on several continents aimed at providing young scientists and engineers with the means to conduct ground temperature monitoring in under-investigated permafrost regions.Focusing on sites not currently covered by the IPAs Thermal State of Permafrost project, the young investigators of PYRN successfully launched and funded the PYRN-TSP project. The first phase of the project was started in the spring of 2008 at Scandinavian sites. In Iskoras, Karasjok, northern Norway, a deep borehole (58 m) were drilled in September 2008. In Skallovarri, Utsjoki, northern Finland a borehole 3 m, was drilled in a palsa mire in June 2008. In Abisko, northern Sweden, 5 boreholes ranging from 6 to 13 m were drilled in April 2008, also in peat mires. In Svalbard, two boreholes were drilled at Endalen in April 2008 and at the old Auroral Station in Adventdalen in May 2008. The borehole at Endalen was 20 m deep and the borehole at the Old Auroral Station in Adventdalen was 10 m deep. All boreholes are instrumented and permafrost temperatures have been recorded successfully since the boreholes were drilled. The data and results have and will be incorporated in the NORPERM permafrost database that was developed through the TSP Norway project.